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“I’m learning self-discipline, learning to schedule my time and energy,” says Chantal Pasquarello of Phoenixville, Pa., a graduate of Spring-Ford High School. “As I grapple with the research, I have to keep on top of things because Professor Peleg has high expectations. He is so excited, so enthusiastic about this project. It is hard for me to keep up with him.”
When Marquis Scholar Chantal Pasquarello speaks of “sink or swim” this summer, she is not talking about plunging in the pool to beat the sizzling weather. Rather, she is describing the challenge of assisting to Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana professor of government and law, as he begins research for an exhaustive study of the history and politics of Israeli Arabs.
Pasquarello is participating in Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students serve as research assistants to faculty members while earning a stipend. She’s working full-time on a project entitled “From Segregation to Integration of Israeli Arabs: The Neglected Item on the Peace Process Agenda.” She’s performing several important functions in the early stages of the research, including identifying, organizing, and summarizing relevant bibliographical items and helping prepare questions for interviews Peleg will conduct with Israeli Arabs during a three-week stay in Israel.
Was it easy for a student with just one year of college experience to plunge into this? No! But now she’s doing very well.
“For the first three days I felt lost!” she says. “I found hundreds of sources and items via computer searches and I seemed to be drowning in information. Slowly I began to grow more confident. I began to weed out what we needed.
“I’m learning first-hand how to develop organizational and research skills,” she continues. “It has been both scary and exciting, but Professor Peleg trusts me to identify what is important to him.”
In addition to developing the skills of a scholar, says Pasquarello, “I’m learning self-discipline, learning to schedule my time and energy. As I grapple with the research, I have to keep on top of things because Professor Peleg has high expectations. He is so excited, so enthusiastic about this project. It is hard for me to keep up with him.”
Peleg says Pasquarello’s intelligence and skills stood out when she took his First-Year Seminar on international conflict in the contemporary world.
“Her work was the best in the class,” he says. “She is an excellent student who has linguistic, computer, and library capabilities that fit ideally with this project. She intends to major in international affairs, and this project touches on all the components of that field, including politics, history, economics, and a foreign language.”
Pasquarello thinks the Peace Corps may be in her future. After that, perhaps, a diplomatic career.
“I want to do peace negotiations, to help out, and be able to use my knowledge to travel to the far corners of the world and improve life and help establish peace,” she says.
Another Side of Chantal
She is a member of the French Club and International Students Association. She performed in the Marquis Players’ production of the musical Pippin in April, which raised money for local charities. The Marquis Players’ series, formerly called the Chaplain’s Musicals, began 14 years ago. The annual productions have raised nearly $50,000 for local hunger and homelessness causes. This year she plans to be a Resident Adviser and will help fellow students with their writing assignments as a Writing Associate in the College Writing Program. Selected from a wide variety of disciplines for their proven performance in writing and their eagerness to help others, Writing Associates work with the students in a specific course throughout a semester.